Minnesota Bus Driver Wins Powerball, Retires

After a Minnesota bus driver found out he just won a million dollars in Saturday's Powerball drawing, what's the first thing he did? 

That's right, he hung up the driving gloves, called his bosses and retired. Good for him! It seems that Joseph Woods was already semi-retired, but still drove a few routes for the Metro Transit System in St. Paul. He bought a Powerball ticket for Saturday's drawing and while he didn't match the Powerball number itself, his ticket did match all the other numbers. Which was good for a million dollars.

So Woods retired. "I told them, ‘I’m not coming in anymore. I just won $1 million.’ I think that was a good enough explanation,” Woods said, according to the lottery in a story on TwinCities.com.

I'd say that's pretty good excuse! Isn't that the dream we all have-- to win the lottery and hang it up? It seems you always hear about some big Powerball winner who say, despite their winnings, they're still going to go to work. In fact, some lottery experts say if you do win big, you shouldn't make any drastic decisions, like retiring or quitting your job, for a couple of months. But seeing as Woods had retired from driving bus full time back in 2007, I'd say he's pretty much in the clear.

And, as it turns out, he bought his winning ticket at a pretty lucky location: the M&H station on Arcade Street in St. Paul also sold a winning lottery ticket worth nearly $61 million to an Oakdale couple back in 1999!